A fire's shadow

Forgiveness and entertainment

The gunshot echoed through the entire warehouse. After that, it was like time stopped. No one moved a muscle. After what felt like hours, everything started to move in slow motion. Shadow's eyes bolted between Lloyd and the others, trying to pinpoint who got shot. But that's when he saw it. In front of him. Was a black jacket and brown hair. Kai stood in front of Shadow with outstretched arms. When the time finally started to move again. Kai closed his eyes and fell backward. Shadow caught him just in time before his head hit the concrete. The fire master sat down and had his brothers head in his lap when he then saw the horror he right there called reality. Kai had gotten shot. He had taken a bullet for Shadow. The black-haired fire master started to tear up as he saw Kai's shirt get even redder. "No, no no no. Kai...." Kai slowly opened his eyes and stared at Shadow, "It's....." He coughed up some blood, "...It's okay bro....." Shadow shook his head, "No, it's not okay.....You're shot, you're bleeding...." Kai chuckled, "I've dealt with worse....." Shadow turned to the others who were still frozen in shock. "Cole, Nya! Take care of the leader who fired the gun! Zane help me with Kai! Jay! Call an ambulance!" Everyone nodded and got to their tasks. Lloyd just stared at Shadow and Kai, he was completely frozen in place. Zane ran over to Kai and scanned the wound. "It looks bad. We need to stop the bleeding somehow." Shadow turned to the green ninja, "Lloyd, find something to wrap Kai's wound with." Lloyd shook his head to get back to reality, "Okay, On it!" He then ran to search the place for anything that could help. It didn't take long before he found an old bed sheet. He ripped into a long piece and then ran back to Shadow and Kai. He handed the fabric to Zane who started wrapping it around Kai's stomach, trying to stop the bleeding. It was by that time that Nya and Cole came back, "He got away. We tried to chase him but he was too fast and smart." Nya then turned to Kai, "How is he?" She bent down and placed a hand on his cheek. "He's not good. He's already lost a lot of blood and even with the wrapping it won't be long before he bleeds out." Just as on queue, sirens came from outside. Two paramedics came in with a stretcher. When they saw Kai they didn't hesitate to start getting him onto the stretcher. "What happened?" One of them asked as they loaded Kai into the ambulance outside. "He got shot." They nodded and got into the ambulance. "Is one of you coming with us?" Shadow felt a small push from behind and heard Lloyd's voice, "Go. You should go with them. After all, you're closer to him than anyone else." Shadow turned and gave Lloyd a smile, "Thank you." He then went into the ambulance and closed the door behind him. The ambulance drove away. The ninjas all wanted to get to the hospital as fast as possible. They summoned their dragons and flew off.

It took the ninjas twenty minutes to get to the hospital. When they arrived there was no sign of Shadow anywhere in the lobby or waiting room. Cole walked over to the front desk, "Excuse me. But I'm looking for two friends of mine that came here with an ambulance." The nurse looked at Cole, "Do you mean the one who was shot and he who came with them?" "Yes. Can you tell me where they are?" "The one who was shot was taken to intensive care. The other one sat in the waiting room when he suddenly fainted. It was then we saw that he too had some bad injuries so we took care of him too. But seeing as the one with black hair said they were twins we made sure to give them rooms next to each other. The one with black hair is in his room now, the other one should get to his soon." "Can you tell me which room the black-haired one is in?" "Of course, it's room 308." The black ninja nodded, "Thank you." He then went back to the others. "Shadow apparently fainted because of his injuries and Kai is still in care. But I got the room number to where Shadow is." Nya's face lit up a little, "Then let's go."

The ninjas came to the room and found Shadow on the bed inside. He had bandages on his left arm and right leg. He had an ice pack on the right side of his stomach. He also had a tube that gave blood to his body as he had fainted because of blood loss. Nya walked up to him and her eyes began to water, "He looks so much like Kai when he's sleeping. So peaceful." A groan escaped the fire master and his eyes opened slightly. He scanned across the room and then met Nya's eyes. His eyes opened a little more and he whispered, "N-Nya...?" The water ninja smiled, "Yeah, I'm here Shadow." Shadow chuckled weakly, "I never thought I'd see the day any of you were worried about me. And yet, here you are, standing next to me in a hospital, being worried about me." Cole took a few steps towards Shadow's bed, "Hey man. You're one of us now. If what Kai did proves anything, is that even if we didn't care about you, Kai would kill us if we let anything happen to you." Shadow chuckled again, "Yeah...I guess you're right. Boulderbrain." Shadow's eyes shimmered and turned even more auburn. Now there was only a small hint of red left. The others saw this and smiled. Shadow had now opened his eyes fully. He locked eyes with Lloyd and then turned to the others, "Can you guys give me and Lloyd a minute alone?" The others nodded and left the room, leaving Shadow and Lloyd alone. There was a long while of silence between the two until Shadow closed his eyes and let out a sigh, "You know...." He turned to the window and stared out into the night, "I realize now that I never really was angry at Kai for doing what he did...I was mad at the world for making me nothing more than a shadow of him... Not a day goes by without me regretting what I put him and you through.....but I can't change what I did....." He turned his head back to Lloyd, "If you really don't trust me...then I will not stay around.....I can talk to Kai and make him let me leave.....I won't be a burden or worry for you anymore....." Lloyd's expression softened and he walked over to Shadow and stopped next to his bed and sat down on the chair that was there, "You know...When I first came to the ninja team....while I still was a little kid.....I had done some bad things too.....I was always afraid that the others were worried I would do something like that again.....But do you know who showed me the truth....?" Shadow had an idea but he shook his head. "It was Kai. He told me that no matter what I had done in the past, he would always be my big bro and protect me. And he did, time and time again. The time when I got possessed by Morro...." "He did everything he could to save you. He even jumped into the water despite his fear for water and the fact that he couldn't swim." The green ninja smiled, "Yeah... So you see, I was wrong for judging you...I hope you can forgive me..." Shadow chuckled which caused Lloyd to give him a questioning look, "What's so funny?" "All this time, I was afraid you wouldn't forgive me. And now you sit here asking me to forgive you. I just think the irony is a bit amusing." Lloyd chuckled, "Yeah, I guess you're right. And you're forgiven." "Same with you, Greenbean."